1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to determination of computer storage device contents. More particularly, the invention relates to determination of computer storage device contents using statistical drive sampling.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today there are increasing requirements to quickly, re-liably, and concisely determine the contents of data storage de-vices, such as computer hard disk drives. Currently, hard disk drive content determination is handled either by exhaustively reading the entire contents of the hard disk drive, or by superficially examining the file system through a file browser. As disk drive data storage capacity continues to increase, timely determination of disk content using the above conventional methods is becoming more difficult. For example, over the last five years, the time to read an average computer hard disk drive has tripled such that it now takes 2.5 hours to read a one terabyte 7,200 rpm SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) drive from end to end.